For Okinawa comedian Masamitsu Kohatsu, Aug. 13 is synonymous with the 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States. Aug. 13, 2004, was the day a U.S. transport helicopter from the Futenma air station in the city of Ginowan crashed on the campus of Okinawa International ...
Seven years ago, Naomi Sakurai was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she had only a 60 percent chance of surviving another five years. But Sakurai, 45, beat the disease and returned to the architects office she worked at, despite debilitating pain that made it ...
Japanese spirits were uplifted recently by the news that three "toki," or Japanese crested ibis, chicks were hatched in the wild for the first time in 36 years, the culmination of a ¥300 million project that was started in 1999 to breed the endangered ...
Internet giant Softbank Corp. will go paperless starting this month by banning employees from printing handouts or distributing paper press releases. CEO Masayoshi Son unveiled his grand plan as he released Softbank's earnings report for business 2011 to reporters and investors Thursday, saying the use ...
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government flexed its muscles Friday as the top shareholder in besieged Tokyo Electric Power Co. by demanding that Tepco carry out extensive reforms, including slashing operating costs and making its management transparent. Tokyo Vice Gov. Naoki Inose showed reporters a five-point list ...
The Diet looks like it's finally set to deliberate a long-stalled bill to create a new nuclear regulatory agency that will serve as a true atomic energy watchdog and, hopefully, rebuild the public trust lost by its predecessors. Given that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda initially ...
A total of 81 Diet members visited Yasukuni Shrine on Friday, one day before the controversial Tokyo institution starts its annual Reitaisai spring festival. One participant, Takashi Morita of Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), is parliamentary secretary of general affairs in the Democratic Party of ...
Just as in many other countries, Japan's young voters view politicians as untrustworthy, while lawmakers consider youths completely apathetic and out of touch with the real world — especially when it comes to politics. To mitigate this deep-rooted mutual distrust and attempt to boost the ...
South Africa's tourism sector has grown robustly since it successfully rebranded itself as a top sightseeing destination, especially among business travelers, according to visiting tourism minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk. "Despite the economic downturn, we are outperforming other countries in the tourism industry," Marthinus Van Schalkwyk ...
Hiroshi Nakamichi dreamed of becoming a great one-star restaurateur when he went to Lyon, France, with a Michelin guide in his hands, to work at Michelin-starred restaurants. More than 30 years later, his dream came more than true when his "bible" gave three stars ...
